First of all I apologize for not wrapping up our experiences sooner. The last month of our trip was a whirlwind, and the couple of months that we’ve had back in the
Obviously we made it home, but I know that I can speak for Andy too when I say that we left a part of our heart in Brasil. I’ve had numerous people ask “so, how was it?” and the stock answer is: we formed relationships with people down there that will last a lifetime; it would be insulting to never go back. So many people have touched our lives, and in the reciprocal nature of traveling, we have touched theirs a well.
One of the hardest things about coming back is talking to people about what we experienced. Part of it is that we’re still processing all that happened; the other part is that it is a rare person who is genuinely interested. Few people want to sit through the thousands of photos we took…and I’m not complaining. It’s just the truth. There’s just no way to convey all that we feel and think about an entire culture in 30 seconds at the water cooler. So, the answer you’ll hear (unless we have some serious time together to talk) is “it was wonderful, a life-changing experience.” And, you know what? that’s exactly what people want to hear.
The question we hear most often is “what was your favorite?” Honestly, what kind of question is that? It begs a vague answer…the people, the food, the mountains… How can that tell a listener anything more than they probably already knew?
Or they want to hear about the bad things. The malnourished children, the terrifying bugs, the death-defying traffic or the anti-American sentiments…and all those things are true, but I’m hesitant to include them in a reader’s digest version of our trip because they all need to be explained in context. Rarely do the reasons (or even the justification) for seemingly horrifying things come to light in a short conversation. Crazy traffic issues involve pot holes, weather, negligent governments, and Brasilian fatalism, and all sorts of other complicated things. Malnourished children are the product of resource mismanagement, lack of education, and an entirely different way of thinking about nutrition. Bugs that look awesome and horrifying to us are often useful or even revered for what their presence signify (the giant grasshoppers that show up once there’s been enough rain for example). And the multitude of political discussions I got into and definite anti-American feelings we sometimes got? Well, we just hope that we’ve helped change the international American stereotype for at least a small group of people. What people rarely want to hear is how similar we are. How much Brasil felt very much like home... How the one thing we really learned is that people the world round desire and deserve the same things.
As I go back through this post I’m getting a resounding resentful and negative vibe, and that’s not what I mean to convey at all.
Brasil was wonderful. It was complicated and confusing and wonderful. And really the only way for someone to truly understand is to go there… Or to sit through hours of our photos and hear the story behind each :o). To learn the names of the people we met. Because they are real. They’re still there in the mountains and the cities. They live and breathe just as we do. I think our blog is a good way to start understanding our struggles and joys. We tried to explain what we were experiencing while it was going on. Even I go back and read the posts and remember things that are already fading…that makes me sad. Some day the memories I have will need to be reconstructed around photos and journal entries. It’s a good thing we plan on making more. And if you really are interested in what we learned and how we grew, we would LOVE to talk to you. Just budget in some serious time :o)
One more thing: these are all our impressions. Made through the lenses of our Western, White, Female and Male, English-speaking, Andy and Caitlin eyes. There is no way to leave that identity behind and of course it filtered our experience. You could have a completely different impression.
There’s so much more to know. So much more to be immersed in and try to understand. Honestly though, as hard as I may try, Brasil defies explanation. It must be experienced.
